Tag: indian blogger

I started reading Sidney Sheldon’s books when I was in grade 8 and have read almost all of his books so needless to say, his writing style is very familiar to me. I wasn’t diving into a completely unknown world when bloodline was picked up by me. He is one of my favorite authors and sometimes his books are devoured by me in less than a day’s time. So, bloodline was just there, sitting on my shelf when I was desperately searching for a thriller to read after having finished “The unbearable lightness of being” and boy that was heavy one. Does it ever happen to you that a book sits on your shelf for so long that you start to believe that you’ve read it even though you haven’t? Yeah that is exactly what happened to bloodline, all this time I believed I had read it.

Review:

Do you ever just read a book that you barely started a day ago or so and then as soon as it is over you’re just like GAAAAH I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!

Yeah, as soon as I finished reading bloodline, the very sunny day all of a sudden did not feel so bright and sunny. As soon as I shut the book, it became so hard to comprehend that I was not in the setting of the book but in my own room in this small town which is my home. I had barely started reading the book the day before and could not put it down. It was not just the plot of the story, it was everything about the book that was so gripping that it forced me to keep on turning the page. The concept of “Just one more chapter” went out the window because I knew as soon as I started this book there was no doing anything else until I had finished reading it.

The cliffhangers were not making it any easier, they were so well planned and definitely worked their way into instilling more intrigue and excitement. One thing I always like about Sidney Sheldon’s books is when the protagonist is a female, how they are usually underestimated, shown as a failure and then while the evolution of them turning into this badass of a person is not just read but lived. This book takes you around the world, between the past and the present and gives a vivid description of the beautiful villas and houses. One gets up and close with almost every character as enough time and depth of the story is told for each of them, you see them struggle, live, from their past to the present and just enough glance into how their minds to see how each works and ticks differently. Just enough so as to not give away the suspense. The suspense again was well built and at no point did I feel confused and even though the ending gave the main answers I was still hoping to learn more of each of the characters and how they end up, which was left for the readers to imagine.

I watched this one in between preparing for my exams while procrastinating because a) I couldn’t risk starting a new show and b) I needed something light and funny to watch. Also, apparently this was actually a wattpad book that was later picked up for publishing and then made into a movie!

For some reason, I haven’t been able to watch romantic comedies especially teen romances for a while now so when Netflix (its a Netflix original) decided to just play the tailer when I logged in, I slightly rolled my eyes and thought “Am I really in the mood for a super cheesy teen romance?”. I gave it a shot anyway because helloooo procrastination.

I haven’t read the book so I can only speak for the movie here which revolves around Elle (Joey King) trying to keep her friendship with her best friend (Joel Courtney) intact by following a set of rules while juggling a romance with her best friend’s brother Noah Flynn who happens to be off limits, according to those rules. The kissing booth is where it all starts from for Elle and Noah and it is where Elle’s friendship with Lee Flynn takes a turn it had never before.

Now however cheesy or predictable you’re thinking this movie is in your head right now, multiply that by 3 times. I’m not saying that necessarily is a bad thing but just to give an idea of the cheesiness one might like in a movie. The life-long friendship, the lead as the late bloomer, the forbidden romance, the sneaking around, the confusion phase, the trio of mean girls and all of that cliché teen movie stuff is what this one is made of as well. For me, it was all very predictable but an enjoyable watch none the less. It is like one of those one-time watchable teen romantic comedies.

Its funny how when you think you are really done with someone you go around telling others and casually (but not so casually) announce it time and again that “I’m done!”. Hoping that that “done” would be the official one for you and you’d believe it once you say it out loud. And then past midnight when you lay awake in your bed drunk or even sober, you realise that man you’re far from done. You’re still stuck in that place. You’re still holding on. Still holding on to the memories of that person hoping they would somehow make it better.

No matter how many times you say it out loud to let the world know in order to let yourself know that you have moved one, you know deep down that you haven’t because you feel that longing when you listen to a song in the club, read that piece of poetry, go back to your conversations, really fight the urge to drunk dial, go over your journal entries of that person, just anything and everything that even remotely reminds you of them.

It does not happen overnight, as much as you wish it did, it does not work that way. And now that you started announcing to the world, you do not want to be perceived weak ( or dare i say uncool) by them so you don’t let anyone know that you really are not done. You shed a few tears in lonesome and make up some kind of a story for your lost and sad mood for those times.

Eventually, You get busy with your life, with work, with school, a show or friends. Now, It is probably that phase where you stopped announcing it out loud every time you get drunk.

And then, suddenly, one fine day when you lay awake past midnight a voice whispers in your head “you really are done”. It happens when you least expect it. Just like that. Did you even acknowledge the process? Hardly, but it sure leaves an impact. Is there a need to say it out loud now? Nope. Your heart knows it, it is living it!

Being done is not an announcement that you scream at the top of your lungs, it is a soft whisper which only you can hear that speaks those liberating words to you.

So now that i have been home for a few months and my mother very conveniently hid the coffee somewhere, which usually belongs to me, seriously she only takes it out when we have guests over now and when they prefer coffee over chai or when she is fasting. That is the only time i get to smell the aroma of the mighty drink.

Seriously though, i needed to find my fix of caffeine since i wasn’t allowed to have coffee at home. I, now, drink chai. No kidding! me?! Who never even wanted to taste it for the 20 years of my existence, now i consume it thrice a day at least. How did it come to this?

I never thought myself to be a chai person. I make it with soy milk but still! CHAI! I drink CHAI now and i feel like i am cheating on coffee every time i do it. And i like it, a part of me questions why i never had it before and a part of me is just baffled that i am drinking chai on a daily basis now. And it tastes so good! But i miss coffee but i love chai now and now i am ranting. It is freaking 2:32am and i wanna make a cup of tea. There were times when i would sneak coffee in my bedroom ( not alcohol, not boys….but yeah coffee. i am pretty badass) and hide it under my bed every time my parents knocked on my bedroom door, and now i don’t even bother sneaking around and making it. What is even happening to me?

Maybe i should just start mixing them both and have it. That would be a fun experiment and it does not taste all that bad from what i remember back when i had it in Thailand.

Something you wished so bad would happen but never did, or maybe you never had the courage to let it happen or you tried your damnest for it to happen, but well, the universe had the upper hand.

Maybe you felt disappointed for a while but eventually realised that it was for the better or maybe you made yourself believe that it was probably for the better. So now when you lay awake around 2am, how does it feel when you look back? Is it a nostalgia for something you imagined would happen? And the imagination was so overpowering that it almost felt real? Does it happen often?

Does it leave you feeling empty? Does your heart ache a little too much even today though it was a long time ago?

Whether you’re aching or empty, let me tell you something, something i feel is the reason the situation turned out to be the way it did. Maybe it is better it never happened, because what if the disappointment of it never reaching the level of your imagination was way more heartbreaking?

What if unknowingly you were in for more ache than fulfilment?

I am aware about the whole deal of what ifs and how you shouldn’t live in what ifs but it happened once and that is okay, what is not okay is being so hard on yourself for the sole reason of the not-happening.

And this could be taken as a lesson to be taken forward for the next time you hold yourself back from something. There is too much to talk and write about that which did not happen because of the speculations and the freedom of imagination, Maybe that is what is writing poetry for someone, some kind of art for someone.

So don’t feel disheartened, you tried, even if you didn’t think you did, you tried and the universe acknowledged it.